15th British Juggling Convention
My Review of BJC 2002

It all started a month before the British Juggling Convention, when Stirling Juggling Club had its first outing at the Glasgow Face Painting and Juggling Convention. It was my first convention, and when we all got home, it was decided that we MUST get ourselves to BJC!! The only problem was that none of us had any money...

Our Good Friends - Stirling Council to the rescue!

A week after the Glasgow Convention, we had just finished our 2 hour juggling club and were sat in the pub, when we decided that we should hatch a plan to get ourselves to BJC. Most of the guys at the juggling club are also volunteers at Off The Record, which is a confidential Youth drop-in centre, and as such, they knew about which grants we could apply for. We met up with a representative from Stirling Council, and after several weeks of negotiating, she had agreed for the Council to pay for the 6 of us to travel down to Kent from Stirling (£60 each) and pay for our tickets (another £60)! They also provided some of us with a loan of camping equipment, and paid for enough food for 2 people!!

Thursday - getting there and settling in!

Andy, Duncan, Ewan, Steve Dobinson, Steve (me) and George made it all the way from Stirling to BJC on the Thursday night just after the camp site opened. Duncan gave me a book about Mulla Nasrudin (wise stories which have deeper meanings) to read on the journey down, so I gave him a Christian clowning book to read also!

I had never been camping before, so once all the other guys had set up their tents (as darkness fast set in) they eventually stopped taunting me enough to lend a hand and get my tent up too! We then proceeded to the beer tent where we remained for most of the night, meeting and greeting everyone as they arrived, and purchasing of much alcohol from Tesco's 24hr shop round the corner! I met two guys called Jon and Eric and chatted to them for most of the night. When the beer tent closed, most of us moved to the UV hall and the guys drank more until it too closed! Graham Benson (from Glasgow Juggling Club) had brought the Stirling Posse a case of beer which we shared out amongst our new friends! I also got a shot of Devil Stick Peat's glow balls!

I had stopped drinking long before everyone else and went to bed at 3.30am. I had always thought that I would be freezing cold in a tent, but I was surprised at how warm I was and how easy it was to drop off to sleep, until the other guys arrived back at their tents (beside mine) and preceeded to draw lots of nice windows and decorations on my tent (using the frost on the tent and their fingers)!

A very Good Friday!

I managed to catch a little of the Alexis and Tweedy Clown show, and have to admit (like many other people have commented) that although I don't really like clowning much, these guys had me enthralled and I enjoyed the show!

The Fireworks display was really good. I filmed some of it, but my camera battery ran out, and then later on, I needed to scrub the film to make way for some movies taken at the parade! I was filming with the same hand as I had a bottle of bacardi breezer in, and when I followed a firework into the sky, I spilled half the bottle down my shirt!!

A band called Chu Nah Mi were playing in the school gym. They are a Ska band, and had everyone dancing! Excellent music. I can relive those memories, as I bought their CD!

Tequila Slammer Mexican Wave World Record attempt

A bit of a mouthful! I guess we all thought that this would be loads of fun, but little did we realise that it would involve us all filing into a hall, and waiting for the hall to fill up with people (we needed 500 and only got 411). By the time we got everyone into the hall, I had been standing for over an hour. It was then announced that we had to go through the barriers one more time to be counted at which point a lot of people just left. It was then announced that the world record attempt was over, but that we could just help ourselves to the tequila (which we all did of course)!!

Keeping the Faith

As a Christian in a mainly non-Christian environment, over this holy weekend, I did find it difficult. On the Sunday back home, several of my Youth Group were getting baptised, and I was disappointed that I couldn't be there to share in their special occasion. I didn't get drunk, but still partook in the drinking up to a certain limit. I did my bible study in the 24hr Juggling Hall so that I wasn't separating myself from everyone else.

I got asked a lot of questions about Christianity while I was away, and hope that I was able to answer most of them in a way that would please God. I enjoyed doing the Crucifix move on the trapeze on Good Friday whilst wearing a T-Shirt which had a Crucifix on it. I hope it made people think...

I have a lot of respect for the girl who got up and did a Christian rap at the Renegade after Ross the poet had dissed Christianity. I pray that others were moved by it, and stopped to consider the words. The only renegade act that I deliberately buried my head at was when DevilStick Peat hung himself on a Crucifix and pretended to be Jesus. Not very funny...

Monday - Time to pack up and head home

By the time I had got up on the Monday, everyone else from Stirling Juggling Project (except Ewan who wanted to hang around) had left. Although I had trouble putting the tent up (with it being my first time), I found it very easy to pack the tent and all my belongings, and caught the train with Gabi into London Victoria Street. I then made the rest of the journey home by myself. It took 9 hours to get home, and when I arrived home, everyone was surprised to see me as I had told them that I wasn't coming home till the Tuesday!

Summary:

My first big convention was fantastic. I met a load of wonderful people, and made lots of useful contacts also. Stirling Juggling Project bonded well and really looked out for each other throughout the Convention. The workshops were fantastic, and I even learned a lot by just going along to the juggling hall and watching people juggle. I can't wait till next years convention which is being held in Brighton!!

Thanks to:

• Stirling Council - we couldn't have done it without you (especially the huge grant you gave us to get there)!
• Steve and Andy - we stuck together and helped each other out throughout the whole convention - may the bad puns continue! (I am a board made out of fish... what am I? - a SKATEboard)!
• Duncan, Ewan and George - helping with my tent, and looking out for me
• Peewee - His excellent compering in the Renegade tent
• Liz - for the wee party on Sunday night, and the chats we had!
  
  

   

British Juggling Conventions

2008 Doncaster	2007 Nottingham	2006 Cornwall	2005 Perth
	didn't make it to this one!
2004 Derby	2003 Brighton	2002 Whitstable, Kent

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